Veterans’ Day.
I’ve been watching the services marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on C-SPAN.
None of the cable news networks had anything on. Somehow that’s fitting. It also explains the stupidity I saw when I mistakenly looked at what was out on Facebook. The Marines didn’t want to fly in typically-poor late-fall European weather.
At some point, you have to leave the negativity behind.
So, WWI. The C-SPAN coverage has been interesting. One of the callers was talking about his grandfather on a ship out of Newport News. I looked it up, and one of the photos shown was it sitting pierside at the Coal Piers in Newport News.
Hey! I’ve worked there before. On the USNS Red Cloud.
Of course, there’s also the Victory Arch in Newport News, which was built on West Avenue for the returning troops to walk underneath as they were getting off ships from France to get on trains home.
My great-grandfather was a young Army officer during the war. He died before I was born, but my great-grandmother would tell the story about how, following Infantry Officer Basic, they let the new soldiers go home one last time before shipping out. They were admonished not to go home, and get married. All but one or two in my great-grandfather’s company, him included, returned as married men.
My dad turned down a Merchant Marine Academy appointment so he could go be an Army officer like his grandfather.
There’s so little known about all of this, and how it affected world history.
Off to watch Vice President Pence do the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown.